More Poliovirus Found In Hudson Valley, NYC Wastewater

NEW YORK — The poliovirus has been detected in New York City wastewater, a finding that strongly suggests the once-rare virus is circulating in the city as well as in the Hudson Valley, health officials said Friday.

The discovery in city sewage follows a confirmed case of paralytic polio in a Rockland County resident on July 21 — the first in the United States since 2013 — and the continuing detection of poliovirus in Rockland and Orange county wastewater.

"For every one case of paralytic polio identified, hundreds more may be undetected," said Mary Bassett, the state's health commissioner, in a statement. "The detection of poliovirus in wastewater samples in New York City is alarming, but not surprising."

As of Friday, the presence of poliovirus has risen in Orange and Rockland counties, analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed.

Up from two found in July, virus genetically linked to the case of polio in Rockland has now been found in a total of 20 samples: the 2 collected in May in Rockland, 3 samples in June from Rockland, 8 samples collected in July from Rockland, 2 samples collected in June from Orange County, and 5 samples collected in July from Orange.

Six samples, two collected in June and four collected in July, have also been identified in New York City, state officials said. While the virus in them has not been genetically linked to the individual case in Rockland County, it is either a vaccine-derived poliovirus or variants of the revertant polio Sabin type 2 poliovirus. That indicates a transmission chain from someone who received the oral polio vaccine, which is no longer authorized or administered in the U.S., where only the inactivated polio vaccine has been given since 2000.

The national Centers for Disease Control has a team in New York, sent to Rockland County, where an investigation into the origin of the virus is ongoing. The poliovirus strain found in the Hudson Valley was genetically linked with a virus strain found in wastewater in London and Jerusalem. However, the paralyzed patient, an unvaccinated young adult, had not traveled abroad, so health officials surmise that actual transmission of the virus was local.

The announcement about the discovery of the poliovirus in New York City comes shortly after British health authorities reported finding evidence the virus has spread in London but found no cases in people, The Associated Press reported. Children ages 1-9 in London were made eligible for booster doses of a polio vaccine Wednesday.

There is no cure for polio, also known as infantile paralysis. Anyone who has not been vaccinated against the virus, once a global scourge, is at risk. Inactivated poliovirus vaccine, which is the only polio immunization that has been given in the United States since 2000, protects 99 percent of children who get all the recommended doses, according to the CDC.

Polio was eliminated from the United States; the last case of polio identified in the US was in 2013 in an infant who received a live-virus vaccination abroad — but it still occurs in other parts of the world, especially where there are low vaccination rates.

Rockland, Orange and Yates counties have the lowest polio immunization rates in the state, significantly lower than the statewide average of 78.96 percent of children with three polio immunizations before their second birthday, based on the most recent data from the state's Immunization Information System.

The polio immunization rate in Yates County is 53.77 percent, Orange County is 58.68 percent and the rate in Rockland is 60.34 percent.

In New York City, 86.2 percent of children between six months and 5 years old have received the three doses of polio vaccines, officials said. However, some neighborhoods — such as parts of Williamsburg, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Battery Park City — have polio vaccination coverage as low as 56.3 percent, according to city health data.

Polio vaccination rates by county are available here and more information about wastewater surveillance is available here.

Polio can lead to permanent paralysis of the arms and legs and can be fatal due to paralysis in the muscles used to breathe or swallow. Most people infected with the virus do not have any symptoms, though some will have flu-like symptoms, like sore throat, fever, tiredness, nausea and stomach pain. One in 25 people infected with polio get viral meningitis and about one in 200 will become paralyzed. Post-polio syndrome can appear decades after the original infection.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

SEE ALSO:

• NY Confirms 1st Case Of Polio In U.S. Since 2013
• 379 Polio Vaccines Given In Rockland After Resident Left Paralyzed
• CDC Comes To Hudson Valley To Deal With Polio Virus
• 'Tip Of The Iceberg': More Polio Virus Detected In The HV
• Health Officials Concerned About Polio Vaccination Rates In The HV
• Rockland Polio Strain Matches Virus Samples In London, Jerusalem